Japan : Land of Quirky Polite Frustrations

2013

Hi Everyone,

We are heading home after 4wks of travel, the last 19 days in Japan (my 1^st time there, JC has overnited before) after a week back in Malaysia. We flew into Osaka, from which we also day-tripped to the nearby  ancient capital of Nara (with its many temples from the 7^th and 8^th centuries) and Hiroshima (~330km but only 90min going by rapid “Shinkansen” train, max speed 320km/h- jumped on the wrong one returning so it took 3hrs) with its impressive museum and A-bomb dome (the preserved only building left standing within several km) and it’s nearby island of Miyajima, for a sunset view of its iconic orange sea gate (O-Torii). Some history I hadn’t known: one factor in the decision to drop the bomb was to limit Russia’s growing sphere of influence which would likely have included Japan had a much slower ground invasion been opted for, Hiroshima was chosen as the target as it was the only one of several medium-sized cities [allowing for full documentation of effect] being considered without any known POW camps.

 From there we went to the Kyoto region, spending the first nite in a small mountainside village ryokan /onsen (=traditional inn/ [hot spring] bath), and then the next two in the geisha-famed Gion district of the city itself with its quaint old streets, and many temples and kimono-clad women (99% of whom are Chinese or Japanese tourists all made-up for the thrill, but we believe we saw one group of 3 genuine geishas getting out of a limo and going into an upscale traditional restaurant).

Next we flew to Hokkaido for 1wk  (the northern-most of Japan’s four major islands) where we rented a car to tour it’s natural beauty with volcanic landscapes (including rather lame swan pedal boat rentals which we turned into exercise before I abandoned ship in 2 large crater lakes), natural and hotel-based hot springs- including one amazing spot (private due to rain) that was essentially sitting in a short hot spring waterfall, mountains and a picturesque gorge (seen by bike) all in the setting of very colourful fall foliage. Bad weather did affect us here –forcing cancellation of some anticipated hikes (as it later did with Mt Fuji, tho I knew that climbing it in October was a longshot with the official season ending Sept 1^st) and cable cars, but did lead to finding others by chance including into the center of an impressive peak-ringed sulfur gas-spewing bowl, and a lower range’s 360 view summit. Also made our own butter by shaking and straining milk at a farm.

We then flew into Tokyo for a few days with a 2d side-trip to Lake Kawaguchi, the largest of Fuji’s Five Lake region where we did some biking and took out a much faster rowboat. In addition to seeing it’s bustle and many districts, the highlight of Tokyo is its 634m SkyTree tower, the world’s tallest tower (CN 553m), just completed in 2011, and opened to public last yr (we were able to see the ghost of Mt Fuji from it arriving just after dusk [hadn’t expected the 20min line-up], we also saw Fuji above the clouds in the distance on our flight into Tokyo).

So what did I think of Japan? Well, as seems to always be the case, my views are mixed. It is beyond question that it is an extremely interesting country, culture, and travel destination- one that should not be missed. The food also is second to none- our dinners were consistently excellent, from multi-course Kaiseki (15-20 artistically-prepared amuse-bouche to small appetizer-sized plates plus rice) to large hotel buffets to sushi or okonomiyaki (diverse Japanese omelet-pizzas) to even microwaved 7/11 convenience store fare  (several large chains are omnipresent and do brisk 24hr business given everyone’s long work hours and long commutes {both JC’s Japanese and Chinese friend admitted to rarely eating home-cooked}, they offer pretty much anything you can think of as main courses and also have a full range of baked goods and desserts- don’t ask how often we went). Breakfasts on the other hand were mostly very disappointing- rice, seaweed and pickled vegetables (no fresh fruit or eggs, breads or even cereal). Costs were actually much better than expected be it for food, accommodation or transportation (admittedly the current x-rate of $1=95Yen is about 20% better that most of the past few decades, accounting for part of it).

As for the people it’s hard to say what is really going on in their heads behind the omnipresent veneer of extreme politeness. Do the Japanese still view themselves as unique? As better than everyone else? Although obviously at best generalizations, I was interested in trying to answer this, but don’t think I succeeded (Al- I’d be interested in hearing your views). JC’s Japanese friend was surprised to hear that this reputation is out there (she was more concerned about the younger generation’s lack of a work-ethic), her Chinese friend felt that an undercurrent is still present although only a small minority show it overtly. (Two things that led to my interest in this Q: ongoing questions about the completeness/ validity of official apologies [to my knowledge/ JC’s family in Malaysia also felt that there hadn’t been one, but didn’t pursue the topic further. An internet search, however, does at least document multiple “attempts” ] from imperial Japan over WW2-era atrocities, and a fact told to us by Japanese Canadian friend- that about 95% of 2^nd generation Japanese emigrants marry non-Japanese, herself included (I have now sourced the fact to najc.ca, and it may only apply to Canada).  Why I wondered?- at some level have they acquired a distaste for the effect of over-valuing honour and politeness and conformity on a societal level? Reading Shogun –I’m at p523 of 1152-certainly has only reinforced the hypothesis. Again, I can’t answer this.)

On to less serious stuff- the quirkiness and frustrations! My introduction to traveling Japan came when I looked into getting a JR (Japan Rail) pass, which everyone recommends. For most it is a great deal- unlimited travel for about $270. for the 1^st wk.. However it comes with multiple restrictions. And it only covers JR lines. There are also several private railways that go to key places. We only had 6d before flying to Hokkaido where we would have a car. I came to conclude that it would be a close call for us, however our trip in from Kansai Airport to Osaka  (all major international Japanese airports are very far from their cities- KIX  about 47km from Osaka, 97 from Kyoto is closest,  Narita is 80km from Tokyo, and New Chitose is so far from Sapporo that we didn’t even use the city for entry or exit in Hokkaido, instead seeing it briefly in the middle of our week)  would make it worthwhile. However then I found out that after buying the pass (must be done overseas, and a process in itself), you had to “activate” it on arrival- you couldn’t just state the date in advance, or have it start at 1^st use. You also can’t activate it on the train or at any station, but only at JR offices. No worries- they have them at most major stations and airports including Kansai. However our plane arrives at 10:25pm and the office closes at 11pm despite the last train being later- we probably won’t make it thru immigration in time- what to do? A very polite email reply stating sorry, but there is no solution to this problem. I tried again, emailing back that for such a modern country there must be some electronic way to activate it- again the very polite “sorry, but there is not” reply. (This later became a theme –with societal conformity almost like a computer program, where the structure pre-existed, most Japanese were extremely helpful, but when you were asking something that required thinking outside the box- it was always “sorry”) So we passed on the JR pass, planning to pay for the last train into town. However when we arrived, to our shock there didn’t seem to be any ATMs in the airport! Finally we found one, however it was closed for the night! No problem- we have Visa and Mastercard- or so we thought! The ticket machine rejected both our cards (we were later told that it doesn’t accept credit after a certain hour, but they actually seem not to accept international cards at all!)! The JR office (which do take visa) was already shut for the night, and the ticket booths at entry don’t take payment, instead only showing you to the machines. They wouldn’t consider letting us on the train and paying later. So the train left without us. The main tourist info booth was shut, but we did manage to find a tourist info office in the corner who directed us to a Citibank atm in the corner of the airport, and eventually we found out that there was still one late, slow, bus into town- which we just made. Therefore our 1^st 7/11-type dinner- but it was really good! As was our 100% smoke-free (very few exist) Hotel Elsereine Osaka.

Surprising frustrations continued when we found out that most establishments in this ultra-electronic country (including convenience stores, train stations, museums and other tourist sites) accept only cash. Then to our shock we couldn’t find a bank with international Cirrus or Plus connections! (Without exaggeration getting money was much easier in Gambia and Tanzania than in Japan!) Our travel guide (we had bought a Fodor’s for the 1^st  and last time, I was trying to avoid Lonely Planet which was recently purchased by a former tobacco tycoon- what an ironic dilemma for myself!) named 3 such banks, however, when we finally found one of them,  it’s info was wrong. Our cash getting very low and about to head off to the Kyoto village we got a tip that led to finding a small Citibank outlet- but now they didn’t work either- just stating that transaction was refused by my bank!  I played a hunch trying only a $100. w/d –and it worked! So gave in to JC’s advice and did 2 other $100. w/ds which held us over until we got back to the airport.

Other frustrations related to renting a car. You truly do require an international driver’s license before they will consider letting you rent one- my first since 1995. Although the cheaper locally based rental companies do offer 1-wk rates, they consider Monday 10am to Monday 10am to be 8 days! However Japan’s polite, internet-based helpfulness (they also have great tourist info websites: japan-guide.com is a free virtual guidebook that was much more helpful than Fodor’s) also led to much humour when I found  a free 52-page “must have” English guide For Driving in Hokkaido, which taught me among other things to: be more careful on snowy roads, in the darkness it may be harder seeing pedestrians, to stop at red lights, and wait until they turn green before proceeding, make 3 lefts if a wanted right is prohibited, and at an intersection, to look both ways, and to wait until a pedestrian actually finishes crossing the road before proceeding! Our car did come with a GPS, 1^st time I used a car with one- we named her Suzy-chan and she was quite helpful, especially for finding places once in town. Driving is on the left, however walking differs whether you are in Osaka or Tokyo (apparently there is a rumor that this goes back to side of samurai swords vs businessmen’s wallets!) Speed limits are painfully slow at 50 km/h on regular highways, 80 km/h on expressways (with a boxed-in single lane preventing passing) although this seemed to be the one law that was largely ignored with most cars going at more appropriate speeds.

They are quite good at providing instructions- they even explain how to use the toilet and to flush it! Start by sitting down! The stalls with fancy baby-to-wall harnesses advise you never to abandon your baby there! Actually the toilets are quite something even in public washrooms having multiple functions including posterior wash, bidet and heated seats! Many flush by a hand wave over a sensor, but then I found one that made the sound of flushing for about 10sec without actually flushing the toilet! JC explained that it was to mask “embarrassing noises”! Bathing also needs some mention- “Shogun” makes a big issue out of how central this was to Japanese  (and foreign to European) culture 400yrs ago, and the former at least (and maybe the latter as well?) remains true today with even our cheapest hotels coming with a bathtub, not to mention a public onsen. Unfortunately the public ones are all gender-segregated (and nude), making them far less appealing to us. We were able to pay for a private one  for 50min at one of the larger hotels, and at another, in the only instance of someone thinking out-of-the-box, our very helpful hotel desk mgr officially shut the women’s onsen allowing us to have it to ourselves (we don’t think there were any other female guests that night)! Ironically, he later told us he was Korean. Many of our private bathrooms however were tiny all-in-one pre-fabricated plastic Toto mouldings.

Lastly none of my travel rants would be complete without talking about smoking. We were quite concerned about this before going, but in some ways were pleasantly surprised, especially with outdoor exposure to secondhand smoke. The main tourist areas, and even non-touristy downtown areas actually prohibit smoking on the streets! (in parks too) And unlike Canadians most Japanese actually obey the laws! This made walking around quite enjoyable. They usually have a designated small smoking area, often an enclosed shelter. Indoors was not as good. Most malls and train stations and all trains are smoke-free. Taxis are in theory, but often not in reality. However, most restaurants (even in malls) are not, although enough were for us to make do. Hotels were a big problem, although we found a few that were smoke-free, most had either no policy or non-smoking rooms that were affected by neighboring smoking-permitted ones and hallway smokers. Our first two nights in Tokyo and two near Fuji were terrible, and really affected our enjoyment of the past few days. We eventually found a place named the “Non-Smokers Hotel” for our last night-paradise! However, only for breathing. It was a “cube”-hotel, very small with multiple other rules such as no external food or drink although the room did come with a small fridge! They also couldn’t print out our boarding passes, suggesting an internet café around the corner, which led to my last quirky frustration of the trip. Instead of just attaching a USB to my laptop and pressing print, they stated that I needed to purchase a private room first (they did offer me a choice btw smoking and non-smoking!) for at least an hour! Also in order to do so I needed to become a member. In order to become a member I needed to show them my passport which was back at the hotel… So we decided to get our passes at the airport…

Speaking of frustration as if in compensation our flight has amazingly been frustration-free: although full, no crying babies, no coughers, and no loud talkers! However Air Canada cuisine just can’t compare to Japanese 7/11s!

Until Next Time,

Stu